With reports of movie publishers dropping support for UMD movies, the need for mass storage solutions such as the Neo PSP pad becomes ever more crucial. Currently the largest memory stick available for the PSP is 2GB, this is all set to change in the future with 4GB memory sticks being released but they will still be more expensive than a device such as the Neo PSP Pad. The unit ships with an inclusive 4GB micro drive, this package varies across retailers but the product also supports SD/MMC/CF/MicroDrive and Micro Hard drive formats – so if you have any of these lying around, you can now use them in your PSP. Yes! The PSP now has the ability to utilize the ever popular CF and SD memory cards. Memory features aside, the Neo pad also boasts a number of additional dimensions to your PSP, it gives your PSP some DualShock ® like handles, a movie stand, additional PSP backup power in the form of a battery compartment and a whole host of battery charging functions. Now come June, when perhaps a standalone 4GB memory card is release at over 60 dollar without all these extra features it still looks like it’s very much game on for these devices! If eventually, larger memory is allowed to be used on the PSP via firmware update there will be every possibility that you could even say use a 6GB CF micro drive on your PSP with this device.

Okay men; hit the PSP here, here and here

The Neo PSP Pad 8 in 1 is a very versatile accessory, it brings to you a PSP owner main area’s of upgrade as follows:

1) Memory functions:

- Uses any SONY MS to boot- SD/MMC/CF/MicroDrive converter ALL-IN-ONE: Use any type of card/drive just like astandard SONY memory stick.- SD/MMC/CF/MicroDrive/MS auto detect and auto run: Plug and play!- Supports up to 4GB memory size on PSP, and up to 32GB on PC.- Built-in PSP Ready/Busy/NULL, 3 states status indication.- The 4in1 Pad an exchange data between PC and PSP through any standard PSP USBcable. It supports direct SD/MMC/CF/MicroDrive/MS formatting on PSP.

2) Battery functions:

- Use 4 pcs AA Ni-MH rechargable batteries or 4 pcs AA normal batteries as an additional PSP backup power! (batteries not included)- Built-in A.I. Ni-MH battery recharge system, with full battery protection and fast full charge within 12 hours.- Built-in battery charging with forced full charge indication on LED display- Built-in battery mode switch: You can select Ni-MH batteries or regular battery.- Supports infinite Ni-MH battery capability (nowadays up to 3800MA/h X4)- Multi DC power input: You can use your PSP DC adaptor or car DC adaptor or PCUSB cable to charge the batteries!- Compatible with forced full charge mode: You can force full charge no matter how much battery power is available.

3) Ergonomics functions:

- Anti-Shock protection- Ergonomic design: It gives you the feel of a Playstation 2™ Dual Shock controller for a more familiar and comfortable gaming experience.- Built-in car mounting bracket: Us your PSP in a car with a stable display- Comes with one extra fixup kit

What’s in the Box

When you receive the product you will see the familiar retro holographic packaging as per the Neo PSP converter series. The product arrives in Blister type packaging; the good news is you won’t need any sharp objects to get this one on open, you can literally just pull the packaging apart and get to the good stuff inside! What you will see is a seemingly looking bare bones Dual Shock PS2 controller and a small car mount device. Oh no! Where on earth is the 4GB CF Micro Drive? Its ok, the Neo team has gone to the courtesy of neatly slotting it into the back of the CF section of the device. The provided CD only contains driver files for the MMC memory format, there is nothing else except drivers for the Neo Team's other products on the disc.

Conversion as easy as A, B, C

Now comes the time to get this bad boy attached to your PSP. Installation is relatively simple, the attached soft cable goes into the memory stick slot of the PSP, if you haven’t plugged in your memory format of choice – do so now and then turn on your PSP and enjoy some new found memory. Just to make this clear, you can not use both a Pro DUO memory stick and another memory format at the same time, the soft cable has a dummy PRO DUO card which acts as a pass through between your CF/SD/MMC card and the PSP.

The soft cable is helping to emulate your memory format and fools the PSP into thinking there’s a Pro DUO inside. Somewhat a paradox occurs here with the soft cable, on one hand it has to be flexible in order to neatly tuck in behind the PSP but on the other hand it has to be strong enough to last – I can not help but feel that if you remove the PSP pad on a regular basis sooner or later your soft cable will break. However the Neo Team do offer replacements should this fate occur. Now comes the time to clip your PSP onto the unit, there are two clips at the top and bottom of the PSP respectively, they are rather rigid in structure and once your PSP is in they really dig their claws into it! (In a secure and good way) You could literally hold the attached PSP pad with one hand and lasso it around your head with the PSP remaining firmly in there.

Eureka! My PSP now has almost 4GB (3921 MB) of available storage space from the supplied 4GB CF Micro Drive.

Transfer Times – No Problems Here…

Transfer times to and from the compact flash drive were fine, a little slower than with a PRO DUO but certainly more than bearable – you will not be waiting hours on end to shift your files over to your PSP and from your PSP to your PC. In order to transfer files to your PSP, you do it just as you would normally with a Pro DUO memory stick.

I thought it’d be worthwhile to see how the Neo PSP Pad handles all the PSP Media functions and some homebrew – could this emulation concept come with any drawbacks?

Picture Viewing and MP3 Play Back

It’s all good, the pictures are recognized and display fine. I transferred over around 20 MP3’s to the device, they were all recognized. Loading them all up appeared to put a bit of strain on the unit but they all played back fine with no glitches or stutters.

Movie Playback – Houston we have a problem, but it’s fixable!

Obviously a movie would without doubt put the most strain on the whole hard drive emulation process. I used PSPVideo9 to encode part of the old classic Beverly Hills Cop with the highest possible settings. I transferred this movie over to the pre-made directories; it was recognized instantly by the PSP. Playback began and I thought great it works fine, but after a few seconds of playback I began to notice some frame slowdowns and stuttering sound – my initial good feeling was quickly shot down with this poor playback, one of the main uses and reason for purchasing this product would be to watch your clips and movies back on your PSP if it can’t handle that then despite all it’s other whacky uses it just wouldn’t make a cut.

The highest quality video and audio settings were a bit too much to handle, resulting in frantic constant communication between the PRO Duo orange light and the Green PSP pad light.

So I went back to the drawing board and thought hmm maybe I was little cruel to this unit, perhaps if I lowered the encoding settings it would run a little better. So off I went lowered the quality, well supposedly and played the new seemingly lower quality clip back on my PSP. To my surprise it was running smoothly and without a glitch! The sound was fine, the movie quality was more than fan, if you want to get really picky perhaps the image was ever so slightly more pixilated but you really can not tell the difference between the higher and lower quality encoding used. If you refer to the Video, you will see what I mean, the first clip is with the high quality settings and the second is the encoding with the lower quality settings – you will see the communication is much more relaxed and comfortable between the Pro DUO orange light and green PSP Light. The hard drive can now perform enough revolutions to display the lowered quality video.

It is best that you watch the video to see what I mean, the first movie clip played you will see stutters, whereas the second one which was encoded with lower quality settings plays back ever so sweetly.

Adblock

A Touch of Homebrew – Genesis Emulation

Just to give it the complete once over, I also tested out a piece of homebrew in the form of the very popular Genesis emulators PSP Genesis and D-Gen. Both emulators worked fine, I did notice my Lion King ROM did take marginally longer to load up, for example with a Pro DUO stick you will see a quick flash of the loading bar in PSP Genesis but with the Neo Pad you will see a more gradual load. However, once the ROM is loaded, it’s loaded and you can enjoy all your legally owned ROMS on your PSP via these emulators. And yes, I did own an original copy of the installed ROM if you would once again refer to the complimentary video .

Technically speaking the Neo PSP Pad 8 in 1 did handle every file I threw at it, the only drawback per say is the stuttering performance on the high quality encoded video, this was solved by lowering the quality of the encoding to which the Neo PSP Pad passed the playback test with flying colors. I will be honest, the lower quality settings are not visually much different, and you will barely notice the difference partly due to the PSP screen which can pull off just about anything!

The Playstation Controller PSP ‘S’ Type

As I mentioned earlier, you will notice the Dualshock-like controller grip on the Neo Pad. Regardless if you have small hands or big hands, it will be something you will love and will question why it wasn’t present on the PSP since its birth. The Datel 4GB hard drive gets uncomfortable after a spot of gaming, the Neo 2 in 1 converter isn’t too bad but still it seems like a bit of a D.I.Y project. This design is great and feels finished. Your hands will wrap around the PSP comfortable with your index fingers automatically finding their way to the left and right triggers of the PSP, it is now possible for me to have intense gaming on the PSP without getting hand cramps!

The PSP stand at the back is a welcome addition, whilst it does look fairly cheap it does do the job and provides a stable standing platform for the PSP – perfect for watching movies back sat at your desk or listening to your MP3’s. It just makes your PSP look cooler, as if it was on show at an exhibition. The battery recharge functions as described in the opening of this review just add icing to the cake, if you’re a PSP diehard gamer and can’t live without your PSP on, then these functions will be something you will eventually become besotted with. You can even use your USB slot on your PC to give a charge to the PSP – how cool is that? Pretty cool I say, but I will never use the battery functions, when my PSP is out of charge it will go into the mains for a full charge and that’s the end of that.

The Swiss Army Knife Equivalent for your PSP

Virtually every half-decent selling PSP third party accessory has been thrown into one compact and nice looking unit. The quality is solid and something which should last for the duration of the life of your PSP barring possibly the soft cable which can be replaced. Let’s not forget it brings a whole range of new supported memory formats to the PSP, whilst it may lag slightly it’s certainly bearable. Considering the 4GB CF micro drive is included, which can be used on other devices too, the neo PSP pad is great value for money. I will take the bold step and say, this is the first mass storage solution for the PSP which actually works ‘with’ the PSP not against it.

Positives

+ Multi format converter for PSP+ Included 4GB CF Micro drive+ Light weight and makes the PSP more comfortable to hold+ Innovative use of space, every inch you find there is a useful PSP accessory+ Good value for money considering there is a bundled 4GB CF Micro drive

Negatives

- Stutters on the highest quality encoded movies- Noticeable yet bearable lag times on loading from the drive- Quality of the soft cable is questionable- Flimsy looking PSP back stand